


On the Matter of Horses (And Clowns)

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Crazy, Developing Relationship, Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Horses, Male-Female Friendship, Past Violence, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3167930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set at the end of The Two Horses Job.  Still trying to figure out what makes the thief tick, Eliot invites Parker to meet one of his oldest firends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Matter of Horses (And Clowns)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [k3nj1ph1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/k3nj1ph1/gifts).



> Oh my dear IJ, I am so proud of you for participating this year! I had no idea how I was going to come up with a story that would do justice to how happy I am that you decided to play with us, and then this happened. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Just as a historical note - Rob Roy was an actual horse at a stable where I took riding lessons just after college. And yeah, he was pretty much as I've written him - willing to do whatever you told him to and carry even the most incompetent beginner on his back around the ring...and still one of the only animals ever to make me feel like a blithering idiot without being able to say a word.

Eliot leaned on the fence and waited for the ancient bay gelding to stroll in his direction. Rob Roy had been a fixture of Willie’s stable going back to when Eliot could see no better life for himself than marrying Aimee, learning the business from her father and taking over when Willie got too old to keep ahead of his charges. “Aunt Carol had borrowed him for my cousin’s tenth birthday,” Aimee had explained when he asked how the horse had managed to escape the devastating fire that had brought them back into each other’s world. “He’s been in Sky Ridge until a week ago.”

“You’re not gonna let a pesky little fire stop you, are you boy?” he asked, stepping up on the lower rail and rubbing the horse under its forelock. The gelding endured the attention for a few minutes before determining there were no treats forthcoming, then snorted and wandered off.

“So…why am I here?”

Eliot turned to see Parker standing approximately ten feet back from the fence. “You’re here because somebody as smart and fearless as you are has got no business being scared of horses.”

“I told you guys I wasn’t scared anymore!” the thief protested. Her voice was steady and strong, but Eliot could see the panic in her too-wide blue eyes. “I get it – they don’t kill people.”

Not for the first time Eliot was struck by how much Parker resembled a skittish colt. “So if you’re not scared of them anymore,” he said, making his voice as calm as he could, “then you’ll come meet one of my oldest friends, right?”

Her attention ticked past him briefly. “Four legs, right?”

Eliot nodded. “Four legs and flies, as the old joke goes.” He held out his hand. “Come on, Parker. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She still hesitated. “You guys are really friends?”

“Come here and find out.” He waggled his fingers at her. After another long moment, Parker blew out a quiet breath and came to stand directly in front of him.

“At the fence,” he directed, taking her by the shoulders and moving her into position. The thief tensed, but she didn’t fight him.

“Why is this so important to you?”

Eliot stepped back up on the bottom rail of the fence, put two fingers in his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Rob Roy had retreated to the shade of a nearby oak, and when he raised his head and saw who was calling him, Eliot would have sworn the horse would have said “seriously?” if he had been capable of human speech.

Swinging himself up onto the top rail, he pulled out the apple he’d stuck in his pocket and showed it to the animal. “Animals always deal straight with you. You treat them fair, they’ll return the favor.” He glanced down at Parker. “I know we still don’t know each other very well, but I think you’ve missed something growing up.”

He heard the thief whimper softly as Rob Roy trotted up, but to her credit Parker didn’t back away. Eliot let the gelding take the apple, petting him as he crunched away. “It just doesn’t sit right, a smart girl like you scared of somebody like Robbo here.” Pulling out another apple, he held it out to her.

Parker eyed the fruit suspiciously. “What am I supposed to do with that?”

“Get up here and make a friend,” Eliot said, rolling his eyes. “Just leave it on your palm and let him do the work.”

She still looked doubtful, but just as Eliot was getting ready to make a fresh appeal, she swung herself up beside him. Rob Roy tossed his head – clearly not pleased with her quick, almost frenetic movements – but Eliot caught his halter and kept him from bolting. “Get settled,” he told Parker, still keeping his voice calm and steady. “Put the apple on your palm and hold it out towards him.”

“He’ll bite me,” Parker protested, but she did what he told her to.

“Don’t curl your fingers,” Eliot said, releasing his hold on the horse. Rob Roy swung his head towards Parker, catching the apple as part of the sweeping movement, and finishing by trotting back towards his tree before Eliot could get any other ideas he didn’t want to be a part of.

Parker was predictably outraged. “Where’s he going?”

Eliot snorted softly, shaking his head. “That’s not about you – that’s about me. He thinks I’m wasting his time.”

“You think he’d let me ride him?”

“You want to?”

Brow furrowed as if she were only just now realizing what she’d said and that the idea didn’t completely terrify her, Parker nodded. Then she added, “He won’t kill me, will he?”

Eliot studied her for a long moment, trying to determine if she was serious or not. Finally he asked, “Parker, you do understand that wasn’t really a horse that killed that guy when you were a kid, right? It was a guy in a horse costume.”

He didn’t know what he was expecting in the way of a response, but her looking at him as though he were the one who wasn’t quite right in the head wasn’t anywhere in his top five list of options. “I know _that_ ,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “He still killed the guy in the clown suit though.”

He waited for her to continue her explanation, but no further narrative seemed to be forthcoming. Parker’s slight disconnect from the normal world had bothered him at first, but the longer he spent around her, the more Eliot was coming to realize that by growing up without the normal childhood experiences and understandings, Parker’s brain had wired itself accordingly. Of course all that fresh understanding didn’t stop him from asking, “How do you get from a guy in a horse suit killing somebody to being afraid of real horses?”

She laughed at him. Parker actually laughed at him. “It wasn’t the ‘guy’ part of him that killed the clown, of course.”

Horrified, Eliot caught himself beginning to nod in understanding and agreement with the thief. _Note to self,_ he thought. _This brand of crazy is highly contagious._ Jumping down on the paddock side of the fence he asked, “So, you really want to ride?”

After another beat, Parker nodded. “Okay,” Eliot said. “Follow me – let’s see if we can talk old Robbo into it.”

Parker slid off the fence, and together the two of them headed over to negotiate with the old gelding. After a moment of companionable silence Parker said, “You know, you never answered my question.”

“What’s that?”

Parker looked up at him and in all seriousness asked, “He’s not going to kill me, is he?”

A dozen potential responses flashed through Eliot’s mind, but he settled for taking her hand and saying in as reassuring a tone as he could manage, “No, Parker. Nobody’s going to kill you – least of all that horse. I won’t let them.”


End file.
